Dracula: The Music and Film

London premiere of sweeping score composed by Philip Glass and performed live by Kronos Quartet to the chilling American cinematic classic Dracula (1931), starring Italy’s Bela Lugosi as the world’s most popular vampire.

The perfect marriage of the live and the undead.

Philip Glass gives new life to Universal Pictures’ 1931 classic Dracula with a new score composed specificall for Kronos Quartet which underlines the romanticism of the story and the haunting power of Bela Lugosi’s gaze. Glass’s minimalist tendencies lend themselves well to the suspense and shifting moods of silent cinema, but in Dracula he also maintains an engagingly listenable and timeless chamber-music feel.

Accompanying the projection of this Tod Browning-directed period masterpiece is the Kronos Quartet, consisting of David Harrington and John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Jeffrey Zeigler (cello) who will be joined by Glass on stage; the work will be conducted by keyboardist Michael Riesman and promises a hypnotic and exhilarating audio-visual experience.

‘A provocative sound track … film purists may call it a trick, but it is really a treat’ Los Angeles Daily News

‘A night to remember…this Dracula didn't suck….bewitching and hypnotic'. Toronto Globe and Mail